Sunday - May 12

Saturday - May 11

Bike

3h 20m

100.70 kms

30.21 KM/hr

Centurion Ontario Pre-ride.

My cycling buddy and I went out for a pre-ride at the Centurion Ontario route at Horseshoe Valley resort. It was exactly what I needed, to see the course first hand and know what to expect, but also to get a good hard LONG training ride in with plenty of hills. This was exactly what it was... the hills seemed to never stop at some points... and if we weren't climbing we were descending in cross-winds. Great ride with a nice group of guys. I have a lot of work to do on the hills, my power to weight ratio is lacking, but I make up for it on the flats/downhills. I was coasting down hills over 60 km/h, and cruising on the flats at 40 km/h numerous times. I showed them what a big man can do if he's got an engine. ;)

Sadly, I failed on my nutrition and almost bonked in the last 20 km... but kept going and just worked to stay with the pack. It helped that Graham took charge of the pack and slowed them down to make sure we all finished together. It wasn't to be a hammerfest, just a nice training ride, which is exactly what it ended up being.

My friend and I were very pleased to have done it...even with the 2 hour drive. :)

Friday - May 10

weather - rain all day (although it wasn't raining this morning, and is supposed to be finished by 5... I'm a wimp ).

100 km pre-ride tomorrow @ Horseshoe Valley for Centurion Ontario

need to The Beast's rear wheel in to have spoke changed. I don't have the tools to do it. I tried getting tire off this morning and couldn't even get it started. I'll leave it for the pro's with the tools to do it.

my legs are tired.

Hope every one else has a great weekend... and to all the Mother's... HAPPY MOTHER"S DAY. Hope you're spoiled by your kids & hubby's.

Thursday - May 9

Bike #1

39m 30s

21.19 kms

32.19 KM/hr

Was having a good ride... and then the skies opened up. I got a little wet, but it wasn't uncomfortable as it was warm.

Decided that I needed to maintain the effort through out this morning, too often after a tough day I will take a couple days easy. That hasn't worked, so now it's going to be a couple hard days followed by easy days. Kept the cadence up over 90 for the majority of the ride, on the hills I tried to keep the speed up as well as the cadence... really worked the legs. :)

In zone: 23:25
Calories: 369

Bike #2

44m 30s

21.19 kms

28.57 KM/hr

Just another ride home. Nothing special to report... except I developed some kind of cramp in my left knee... it was most excruciating. Every couple minutes it was there for a couple seconds, then gone. This started around 4 pm and I had to ride home with it. The cramp was worse when I was exerting a lot of pressure on the pedals, but if I rode steady and spun easy, it rarely happened. While at work, it occured when I was doing nothing at all... just sitting normally in my chair. VERY bizarre.

Made some good time even though I was riding through a headwind. I rode in a TT position (arms on top bar) and just tried to take it easy to prevent cramping from getting worse. Good ride. :)

Wednesday - May 8

Xena and I rode well this morning, she's so easy to ride. :) Even with the head wind, I didn't feel like it was too hard.

I did put in some harder efforts, but only a few. Most of the time, I was just spinning easily. Good ride... but then again, ANY ride is a good ride. :)

In zone: 25:52
Calories: 433

Bike #2

36m 45s

22.20 kms

36.24 KM/hr

Yup, you see that right folks... a 36 km/h average coming home from work. I had a fantastic tailwind, and motivation to beat the rain home (the radar showed it closing in on us... but never did materialize). I didn't want to have to wash up Xena, so I pushed hard. Not that it's hard to push her fast.

I flew out of the parking lot and never slowed down... hit all the lights green and never had to slow down for any of the Round-about's... and only brief stoppages or rolling stops through all the stop signs. I decided that I would take the busier, but easier route home, as it's also shorter. Just to cut time off the commute... and make it easier to maintain speed. On the one road heading into Petersburg, there is a Strava segment I didn't know about. I was just pedaling as steady and hard as I could. Coming into the town I maintained 45+ km/h... so fast that the car behind me didn't pass at all and just stayed behind--even though he could have passed at one point. The light ahead was red, and there wasn't any point, but by the time we reached the light it turned green and I was able to make my turn without unclipping and the driver rolled through unhindered. It was the MOST amazing bit of driving I've seen in a long time on the bike, a driver that actually obeyed the rules and wasn't in a hurry to get to a red light... WOW.
After the turn, I have a 2+ km climb to the top of the sandhill, and I just kept pushing. About 200m from the top, I told my legs to STFU and kept going... I think I crested the hill just under 30 km/h.... my fastest climb up that hill this year (thank you wind).
Coming down into Baden, I coasted down the main hill, then at the bottom started hammering again, hitting 50 km/h on the flat and roaring into the cut-off. I made the turn onto my street at well over 30 km/h and raced to my home over 35. I crossed my house at 34 min even... approximately according to my funky bike computer... which is approximately 37 km/h average over 21.2 km. I then rolled around the corner, up the court and back home to cool down for an extra 1 km at an easy pace.

GREAT ride home -- Bill, sorry you had to suffer through that head wind-- I enjoyed that a LOT.

In zone: 33:15
Calories: 421

As you can see from the HR data of the ride home, I wasn't full out. I saved a little in the tank because my Max HR never went over 140. I didn't really work that hard on the hills... I could have gone harder. I was also, just cruising hard on the flats, but not full exerting myself. This, of course, is partly due to the great tailwind, but also because I didn't think I needed to go full out.

I beat the rain (it never did happen), and on top of that I got a KOM on that one Strava segment I went through. I averaged 40.2 km/h over that 2.3 km... and that includes a long grade of about 2-3% and a short little lump over an overpass... everything else is downhill. It's usually into the wind, but having that tail wind, sure made it fast. :)

For that KOM... I bested one of the race team guys by 4 seconds... I'm sure he'll try and get that back. ;)

Tuesday - May 7

Bike #1

41m 50s

21.19 kms

30.39 KM/hr

I decided that the best therapy for my injuries was to ride to work again today. Fortunately, the wrist doesn't hurt while riding mostly, only when I have to grip the brake does it give me any pain... and that's just stiffness... and I can't squeeze as hard as I'd like. Fortunately, it's the left wrist, I shouldn't brake too hard with the front brake any way... so it's ok. I hardly brake at all on my commute... there are only 5 stop signs, 2 traffic lights and 2 round-abouts on my routes, so the stopping is very minimal. :)

Used small chain ring this morning, but pushed hard on the hills. Spinning higher cadence, but not down-shifting as much as I normally would. I really need to work on my hills/leg strength/stamina. Good sweat this morning and a LOVELY morning again... wish I could keep riding, but work has to be done. I need the money to pay for food. :(

In zone: 31:50
Calories: 444

Bike #2

41m 20s

21.19 kms

30.76 KM/hr

Evening... hope it's predicted East wind. Helps to have a tailwind on the way home.

Predictions were right, lovely little tailwind... not strong, but helpful. Unfortunately, I had mechanical issues with the bike... another broken spoke on my rear wheel. I'm really starting to get pissed off with these spokes breaking all the time. :( I'm thinking it's time to look for a more robust wheel build for The Beast. I'm just loathe to be spending that kind of money on my beater bike.

I gave hard pushes tonight, riding hard up hills and trying to work on the stamina. I did pretty well until the last road home and all the hills on Sandhills road. Especially the final one... THE Sandhill... it kicked my butt. Still it was a good ride home, I'm feeling stronger again.

Monday - May 6

Bike

2h 30m

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It was such a glorious day, I just had to go out for a ride. I just wasn't feeling like riding the road... so I did something daring. I took out Schwinny and rode to the Hydrocut trail head and did some mountain biking on single track trails for the very first time. It was... .... .... insert description here. :0

AWESOME? Yes, it was beautiful. It was such a beautiful spring day, the leaves are starting to poke out, the flowers are starting to bloom and it was absolutely gorgeous! The trail system... at least what I rode on.. is truly spectacular. Flowing trails through an agreement forest, maintained by volunteers from the cycling club, with cooperation from the Waterloo Region. It's freakin' fantastic!! I rode some very difficult trails, until I figured out the trail head signs have difficulty ratings on them. Just amazing the amount of work that's gone into these trails and I have never ridden them before... shame on me!!
CRAPPY?? Yes, crappy... as I went down a number of times and now my legs look like a I walked through a mine field... more then usual. I attempted to ride through some very severe whoop-de-doos and got shelled off the bike on the second one. I came down hard in a tangle of debris and scratched up my legs, bruised my wrist and scraped my hip. I didn't stop though, I kept going. Then about 40 minutes later as I was trying to bunny hop over a log stack across the trail (they are there on purpose), on a steep little embankment, I came down yet again, scraping up the legs even more. That was it... I found the nearest exit trail and got out of there before doing some serious damage. Like hitting a tree at full speed (I hit one going slow and didn't do any damage, to bike or body). I'm thinking that I will do any riding in the trees at a slow careful pace from now on. It's good balance skills training, but I WILL get hurt if I try to go fast.
It was a pretty decent day on the bike considering. HR max is most definitely wrong, but I have no idea what it could be... probably in the 130 range. I really wasn't working that hard.

In zone: 21:11
Calories: 936

no idea of distance... I don't have computer on the MTB and my STrava disappeared off my phone. I had started it when I left home, but when I got home it was completely gone! Weird! :(